Country Fire Authority future (10.5.2017)

Written on the 11 May 2017

10 May 2017

COUNCIL

Members statements

GEORGIE CROZIER (LIB - Southern Metropolitan)

Reports confirm what Victorians already know that is, the Victorian Premier governs for his own self-serving interests and not those of the greater Victorian community. I refer to reports of an extraordinary display of not having trust in his own cabinet over the disgraceful decision to wreck the iconic Country Fire Authority (CFA) a volunteer organisation that has served our state so well for over 70 years and one of the largest volunteer organisations in the country by setting up a secret subcommittee of the cabinet to oversee a task force that his own cabinet was not even aware of.

What does that say about this Premier who is running our state?

What does it say about his trust of his own cabinet members, and what does it say about the workings of cabinet?

What does it say about the entire Andrews government?

It says a lot actually about a man so desperate to stay in power that he will not even confide in his own cabinet. He is prepared to do secret deals. Why will Daniel Andrews not just come clean on the deal he has done with Peter Marshall? Victorians know some sort of deal has been done. Why else would Daniel Andrews get rid of his own cabinet minister in Jane Garrett and sack Lucinda Nolan two strong, capable women?

What is more, the Premier did not even have the decency to consult either the CFA or the Metropolitan Fire Brigade about the task force or the decision that had been made. No consultation is pretty standard for this government. They just bulldoze their way through and think that Victorians will accept this attitude of 'my way or the highway'. We have seen it with sky rail. We have seen it with Metro Tunnel and what will be the literal bulldozing of another Melbourne icon, the world-famous St Kilda Road boulevard. It is more than a pity that Daniel Andrews has no regard for thousands of volunteers and thousands of concerned community members when this government's decisions are destructive and irreversible.